David Kemper of the Houston Texans Fan Club of San Antonio wears a Matt Schaub jersey during a Texans game against the Tennessee Titans at Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar at 5860 De Zavala Road on Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. Kemper has been a fan since 2002.

David Kemper of the Houston Texans Fan Club of San Antonio wears a Matt Schaub jersey during a Texans game against the Tennessee Titans at Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar at 5860 De Zavala Road on Sunday,

Larry Courtney (from left), David Kemper and Rachel Vasquez of the Houston Texans Fan Club of San Antonio celebrate a touchdown during a Texans game against the Tennessee Titans at Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar at 5860 De Zavala Road on Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. All three have been fans since day one in 2002.

Larry Courtney (from left), David Kemper and Rachel Vasquez of the Houston Texans Fan Club of San Antonio celebrate a touchdown during a Texans game against the Tennessee Titans at Buffalo Wild Wings Grill

Oved Carranza of the Houston Texans Fan Club of San Antonio reacts to a call going against the Texans during a Texans game against the Tennessee Titans at Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar at 5860 De Zavala Road on Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. Carranza has supported the Texans since their first season in 2002.

Oved Carranza of the Houston Texans Fan Club of San Antonio reacts to a call going against the Texans during a Texans game against the Tennessee Titans at Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar at 5860 De Zavala

Oved Carranza of the Houston Texans Fan Club of San Antonio questions a call made by officials during a Texans game against the Tennessee Titans at Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar at 5860 De Zavala Road on Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. Carranza has been a fan since the Texans started in 2002.

Oved Carranza of the Houston Texans Fan Club of San Antonio questions a call made by officials during a Texans game against the Tennessee Titans at Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar at 5860 De Zavala Road on

Oved Carranza of the Houston Texans Fan Club of San Antonio acts as if he is controlling game action through a video game during a Texans game against the Tennessee Titans at Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar at 5860 De Zavala Road on Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. Carranza has been a fan of the Texans since their first season in 2002.

Oved Carranza of the Houston Texans Fan Club of San Antonio acts as if he is controlling game action through a video game during a Texans game against the Tennessee Titans at Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar

But these days, Ritter has to give equal time to a growing faction at St. Dominic Catholic Church on the Northwest Side.

“More and more parishioners are coming to me and saying, 'Pray for our Texans, Father. Pray for our Texans,'” Ritter said, referring to Houston's NFL team.

“They know I love the Cowboys, but they tell me, 'You have to get on the bandwagon, Father. The Texans are having a great year.'”

Ritter isn't alone in hearing from fans eager to call attention to the Texans' impressive rise from an expansion team in 2002 to a Super Bowl contender.

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A Texans executive said the franchise has nearly 400 season-ticket accounts from San Antonio and would have even more if attendance at Reliant Stadium wasn't so robust.

“It's gone from, 'Let's build a fan base in San Antonio,' to us having one,” Texans president Jamey Rootes said. “San Antonio is very important to us and has been from the start.”

But while there's no question the number of fans jumping onto the Texans' bandwagon grows with each win, there's also plenty of evidence the Cowboys continue to enjoy an iron grip on San Antonio.

That's an impressive feat, considering owner Jerry Jones has a dismal approval rating and the club still is in jeopardy of missing the playoffs for a third consecutive season even though it has a share of first place in the NFC East after rebounding from a 3-5 start.

With two games left in the regular season, the Texans are an AFC-best 12-2. The Cowboys, meanwhile, are a middling 8-6.

But it doesn't seem to matter all that much in the Alamo City.

“I don't believe their grip is loosening at all,” former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros said. “The Cowboys are a religion in San Antonio.

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“And I would argue it is one of those loyalties that doesn't require winning to continue. The Cowboys are like family to many San Antonians — they're going to stick with them through thick and thin.”

A team spokesman said it's against club policy to release information regarding season tickets, but a league source estimated the Cowboys have more than 1,000 from San Antonio.

The Cowboys also dominate local television ratings. Despite the Texans being by far the better team this season and having experienced what broadcasters estimate to be a 30 percent spike in ratings over last season, the Cowboys continue to easily attract more viewers in San Antonio.

“It's three to one typically on a Sunday,” said Joe Reinagel, KENS-TV sports director. “It's amazing.”

That's an understatement, considering the Cowboys haven't won a Super Bowl since the 1995 season and have only one playoff win in the past 15 campaigns.

Yet in the season's only head-to-head matchup — noon games on Oct. 21 — the Cowboys obliterated the Texans in Nielsen rating (17.3 to 4.8) — which reflects the percentage of S.A.-area market households with a TV tuned to the game.

Given that they draw monster numbers even when struggling, the Cowboys attract viewers in San Antonio like no other pro sports team, longtime WOAI-TV sports director Don Harris said.

And, yes, that includes the Spurs.

“To do huge numbers, they don't have to be good,” Harris said of the Cowboys, “they just have to be on.”

Harris called the Cowboys “ratings gold” for the local NBC affiliate when they appear on “Sunday Night Football.”

“It's close to a Super Bowl number,” he said. “No one else comes close to doing that.”

Another sign of the Cowboys' dominance came when CBS aired on KENS-TV the broadcast of the Cowboys-Browns game at noon Nov. 18 rather than the Texans-Jaguars game.

Reinagel said the station heard complaints from Texans fans, but he shuddered to think what Cowboys backers would have done if their team had been left off the air.

“They probably would have burned the building down,” he said. “We got overwhelmed with complaints last year when CBS cut away from the end of a Cowboys' game.”

The situation comes up again today, when KABB-TV will air the Cowboys-Saints game over Texans-Vikings, also a noon broadcast by Fox.

Longtime love

The genesis of the city's love affair with the Cowboys dates to the 1960s, when Hall of Fame general manager Tex Schramm had the NFL's most innovative marketing mind.

“Tex was a great believer in the city and made securing the San Antonio market a personal project,” said Gil Brandt, the Cowboys' first personnel director. “He thought San Antonio was a merchandizing bonanza and that if you captured the city, you had it made. Plus, he had lots of friends there.”

Schramm worked to tighten the Cowboys' hold on the city by making frequent visits to the S.A. Quarterback Club, developing a relationship with former San Antonio Express-News columnist and KENS-TV sports director Dan Cook and creating the country's biggest radio broadcast network, which included San Antonio.

“Tex Schramm did such a good job courting the region and shaping the image of the Cowboys,” said Cisneros, a four-term mayor from 1981 to 1989.

The Cowboys' huge success on the field aided Schramm. Dallas appeared in five Super Bowls under Hall of Fame coach Tom Landry, winning twice. After Jerry Jones bought the team from Clint Murchison Jr. in 1989, the Cowboys won three more Super Bowls.

“All of these kids in the 1960s who are now grandfathers, they were Cowboys fans,” Brandt said. “Their sons were Cowboys fans and now their grandsons are Cowboys fans. The Cowboys have enjoyed this giant tidal wave, this backlog of fans, stemming from what they did in the 1960s.”

San Antonio's large Hispanic population also is a factor in the Cowboys' continued popularity. According to a 2011 ESPN Sports Poll, the Cowboys are America's favorite pro sports team among Hispanics.

Indeed, thousands of Latinos flocked to the Alamodome to watch training camp practices when the Cowboys held their annual summer tune-up in San Antonio several times during a nine-year period that ended in 2010. The workouts often drew 10,000 or more fans — even when the Cowboys were coming off a poor season.

“The Latino community loves football, and part of the culture is to gather together as a family on Sundays,” Cisneros said. “I grew up on the West Side watching the Cowboys with all my uncles and cousins. Every Sunday afternoon, it's barbecue, family, a keg of beer and the Cowboys. (Latinos) build their Sundays around the games and live and die the rest of the week over what happened to their team.”

Similar scenes play out all over the city.

“It is a 50-year-plus generational tradition,” Harris said. “You go to church Sunday morning and you come home and watch the Cowboys in the afternoon. It's woven into the fabric of what people do here. It would take a long, long history of success by the Texans for that to change.”

Still, there are signs the Texans are making inroads. One indicator is the number of red, white and blue hats and T-shirts popping up.

“We only carry Spurs and Cowboys merchandise,” said Alex Barsalou, customer service specialist at Dick's Sporting Goods at The Rim. “But I can't tell you how many people are asking for Texans items. They don't understand why we don't carry them. They say, 'They're the No. 1 team in Texas and you don't sell them?'”

But that isn't stopping San Antonians from finding the club's merchandise. According to shopHouston.com, sales of Texans' gear in San Antonio has skyrocketed 93 percent from last year.

“The Cowboys start from a bigger place, but we are rapidly growing,” Rootes said.

In discussing the Texans' efforts to expand their San Antonio following, Brandt likens the city to a battleground state in a hotly contested presidential election.

“It's kind of like a red-and-blue thing between the Texans and Cowboys: San Antonio is pivotal,” Brandt said.

But the Texans refuse to categorize their efforts to attract fans in San Antonio as a competition between them and the Cowboys.

“Our focus is on winning titles and being incredible on the field, and we're there now,” Rootes said. “If you choose to be a loyal Cowboys fan, great. Let us be No. 2. We want to be No. 1, but we'll take No. 2.”

Subtle shift

While the Cowboys still reign in San Antonio, Brandt said there eventually could be a shift should their mediocrity continue.

“My mom used to always say a watched pot never boils,” he said. “It's hard for us to see change while it is happening.”

Indeed, some Cowboys fans already have pledged allegiance to the Texans. One of the most cited reasons for switching is they're tired of Jones making football decisions — most of which have flopped — and admire Texans owner Bob McNair's hands-off approach.

“The Texans are the anti-Cowboys,” said Jerry Blevins, 64, who said he left the Cowboys to become a Texans fan three seasons ago. “Jones doesn't care as much about winning and losing as he does filling the stadium.”

Cody O'Dell, 27, said he's tempted to root for the Texans after years of following the Cowboys.

“I'm not a bandwagon fan, but I've sat through 15 years of mediocrity and I'm getting fed up with being disappointed year in and year out,” he said. “I want to root for a good team whose management runs things the right way.

“If the Cowboys and Texans played, I'd still root for Dallas. But part of me would get this sick satisfaction from the Texans winning, so I could say, 'Ha, ha, Jerry. You got what you deserve.'”

Longtime Bexar County Commissioner Paul Elizondo said he's never seen so many disgruntled Cowboys fans.

“People are tired of having their hopes dashed. All of a sudden, there's a new kid on the block doing well. The Texans don't frustrate you every game like the Cowboys do.”

In an interview with the Express-News, Jones made it clear he's not threatened by the Texans' success.

“First of all, I am frankly just excited, envious, jealous, proud — write it all — of how well they're doing,” he said.

“We have got a lot of fans in South Texas, but I'm proud they're getting to enjoy the Texans and see what a good coach (former Cowboys head coach) Wade Phillips is (as Texans defensive coordinator). It doesn't surprise me at all fans are excited about the Texans particularly with my coach, old Wade, leading the way.”

Jones said “he led the charge” to get a franchise in Houston after the Oilers moved to Nashville in 1998.

“I knew it would be better for the Cowboys, better for the NFL and better for fans in Harris County to have a team in Houston,” Jones said. “I'm not trying to be magnanimous about this, but I really wanted it and knew exactly what I was doing and pushed for it.”

A team spokesman said McNair wasn't available to be interviewed for this report because he was attending to a personal matter, but Rootes didn't dispute that McNair's low-key style is an asset to the team when it comes to drawing fans away from the Cowboys.

“People appreciate his integrity,” he said.

But no one in the NFL can match Jones' marketing touch. According to the Harris Poll, Dallas ranks as the NFL's most popular team each of the past five seasons, a fact that puzzles many observers.

“Can you imagine the Yankees not having won a World Series in 16 years? There'd be riots in the boxes,” New York marketing strategist Peter Shankman said. “But for some reason, the Cowboys can do no wrong even when they are doing massively wrong.

“It's a credit to Jones. His epitaph will be: Here lies the man who built an incredible football team and brand — or so you believed.”

Fickle fandom?

Cowboys fan and former Express-News columnist Cary Clack, now communications director for Texas Congressman-elect Joaquín Castro, believes there could be a “major fan shift” in San Antonio if the Texans win a Super Bowl and the Cowboys continue to flounder.

“The opposite of love isn't hate. It's apathy,” Clack said. “With Jerry making all these bad decisions, you are seeing more Cowboys fans becoming apathetic. If that persists for another five years or so, you are going to see more people leave the Cowboys.

“It's like a relationship: You can only be thoughtless to your woman or man for so long before they go somewhere else.”

“My 52-year love affair with them is just about over,” said Hamilton, who was at the Cotton Bowl for the Cowboys' inaugural game in 1960. “We actually turned off the Thanksgiving game, which in the past in my family would have been akin to marrying a communist or voting Republican.

“If a fan like me can be so disenchanted, so frankly disgusted and ready to throw in the towel, then imagine how casual supporters feel.”

But many believe San Antonio will never dump the Cowboys.

“San Antonio loves the America's Team image, the lone star on the helmet, everything,” Cisneros said. “If the Texans reach the Super Bowl, there'll be people who make room in their hearts for them. But I can't imagine they'd ever displace the Cowboys.”

Unfortunately for San Antonio, its “blind loyalty” to the Cowboys works against the city's efforts to join the NFL and become a Tier One city, Cisneros said.

“As long as we are enthralled with the Cowboys, we are effectively a colony of Dallas,” Cisneros said. “And this is not just about sports. We lost AT&T's headquarters to Dallas. We lost Christus Health's corporate office to Dallas. We've lost air routes to Dallas. And (Mavericks owner Mark) Cuban calls our river a dirty creek.

“We have to be careful San Antonio doesn't completely subjugate itself to Dallas and remain a colony forever.”

But for many fans, their allegiance to the star is unshakable.

“I grew up in the 1970s with Landry,” said Ritter, 48. “If the Texans won a Super Bowl, I'd still bleed blue and silver. Leaving the Cowboys would be like changing faiths. ... It's just not going to happen.”